Lights ... Camera ... Action! One night, Max is watching his favorite movie for the trillionth time when a spotlight goes on in his head: he could make a brilliant movie and all his dreams of fame and fortune would be solved! After borrowing his father's video equipment, he convinces Sid to be his leading lady, and his dreams of a box office hit... more...

In examining the careers of communist and liberal actors, screenwriters, playwrights, and directors in Hollywood from the late 1920s to the present, this book uses studio and PCA correspondence, FBI files, film and theater reviews, and other sources to reveal how all of these artists were concerned with and active in the cinema of social protest. It... more...

When themes of historical and cultural identity appear and repeat in popular film, it is possible to see the real pulse of a nation and comprehend a people, their culture, and their history. National Identity in Global Cinema describes how national cultures, as reflected in popular cinema, can truly explain the world , one country at a time. more...

Even as a young boy, Eddie Murphy knew how to make people laugh. He first took the stage at the age of 15, emceeing an amateur talent show. At 19, he was discovered by the producers of Saturday Night Live and soon emerged as the sketch comedy program's biggest and most controversial star, creating such memorable characters as Buckwheat, Mr. Robinson,... more...

The Historical Dictionary of American Cinema provides broad coverage of the people, films, companies, techniques, themes, and genres that have made American cinema such a vital part of world cinema. This is done through a chronology, an introductory essay, a bibliography, and over 500 cross-referenced dictionary entries. This book is an excellent... more...

Clint Eastwood is one of the world?s most popular action stars,who has matured into a fine American producer-director. Entertaining, illuminating and packed with information, up to and including The Changeling, this is the first book to cover his full life in the movies, from his beginnings in 1950s B-movies and in TV?s Rawhide to Gran Torino showing... more...

Irish author James Joyce is best remembered as one of the most important novelists of the twentieth century. His masterwork Ulysses is regarded by some critics as the best novel ever written. However, Joyce also dabbled in other genres, and poetry, according to some accounts, was his first literary love. Chamber Music was Joyce's first full-length... more...

Irish-American playwright Eugene O'Neill is credited with altering the trajectory of American drama in the early twentieth century by focusing on the lives of working-class people and using language that more closely echoed everyday vernacular. The Straw is an account of a man who falls in love while in quarantine, being treated for tuberculosis. more...

One of the most significant plays of the twentieth century, Eugene O'Neill's The Hairy Ape is still as startlingly fresh and innovative as it was when it was first published nearly a hundred years ago. Primal working man Yank feels at home in the harsh but familiar environment of a ship's engine room, but a chance encounter with a wealthy... more...